Resplendent
by Shaye Vespertine
Summary: I wanted to thank my readers for the fifty reviews on Tarnished, so I'm rewarding you with this snippet. Possibly more to come in the future. In short: Tony returns home late one night after a business trip, tired and wanting nothing more than to go to bed. He gets to bed, all right. Especially when he sees a semi-nude Pepper sleeping in it! What do you think ensues?


**AN: A huge thank you to all those wonderful people who have contributed to get my fic Tarnished fifty reviews. In order to celebrate this momentous occasion I've decided to gift you with this fluffy/smutty little fic, which may or may not be one-shot, who knows ;).**

**Your continued readership and support are very much appreciated, and the result of my appreciation towards you guys is this ficlet. Enjoy it!**

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Tony got out of the Bentley and bade the chauffeur a good night, looking up at the house for a moment.

He'd just returned from a business trip from China, a trip that had been very successful. The flight had been boring as hell, but now the long day had caught up with him, and he just couldn't wait to get home and into bed.

He entered and carelessly dumped his carry-on bag by the side of the front doors, then activated the safety systems and made his way towards the stairs.

"Welcome home, sir."

"Thanks JARV, it's good to be home again. Run me a bath will ya?"

It was almost half past midnight and the house was mostly dark, in deference to his tired, blood-shot eyes. JARVIS had kept mostly silent and went about the tasks he had been programmed to enact whenever his master returned home from a trip.

Tony slowly climbed the stairs, his hand smoothing over the wooden hand-rail. His footfalls were practically silent on the steps, and when he reached the landing, he turned towards his bedroom.

He opened the door silently, and left the room completely dark. He discarded his clothes and threw them haphazardly on the chair.

Once he was undressed, Tony went into the bathroom, where his bath awaited him. He stepped into the warm water and groaned in relief as his muscles began loosening at the contact. Even these lights were turned down as low as they could go. Having completed his ablutions, Tony stepped out of the bath and wrapped a towel around his hips, his flesh gently releasing plumes of steam.

He dried himself distractedly and walked back into the bedroom, eyes closed, feet sinking gratefully into the plush carpet. The air was pleasantly balmy and the room was practically almost dark, since it was a moonless night. The only light glowed from within his chest and the reactor encased in the middle of it.

Tony discarded the towel he'd been using to dry his hair and turned towards the bed.

And then he noticed.

There was someone already sleeping in it.

His heart rate kicked up to seventy miles an hour. His pupils widened instantaneously, allowing him to see as much as he could. His mouth ran dry and things south of his belt – well, they rose to the occasion.

She'd always had a visceral effect on him – he'd just gotten good at hiding it and deflecting.

Then.

He didn't have to hide any more. His heart expanded with the unexpected vision in front of him; Tony hadn't known she was going to be there when he returned, or he'd have _sprinted_ home if necessary.

"JARVIS…"

His voice was hoarse. Tony did not look away from her lying asleep in his bed. He was entranced by the sinfully gorgeous body he had always fantasised about.

JARVIS spoke as quietly as his hardware allowed, managing not to disturb her sleep.

"Miss Potts arrived after ten this evening sir. She wished to wait for your return here. I suspect she was impatiently looking forward to being reunited with you, a typical sign of that human condition which point to her definitely missing you, sir."

Tony gazed at her sleeping form. Desire, amongst other things, stirred within him. What a beautiful, beautiful surprise she'd had in store for him.

His brain supposed he should do everything in his power not to wake her, and so approaching her and touching her was not part of this equation.

His legs did not obey – gotta walk towards her, just _gotta_ go there.

As he walked closer the light from his reactor caressed her form – even it was amorous where she was concerned – and Tony's throat promptly dried out. She was wearing an old t-shirt of his (and most importantly he could just maybe make out a narrow strip of coloured fabric right between her delectable buttocks) and nothing else.

_Oh sweetheart, I am _so_ happy to see you._

Those long, luscious legs – they'd been labelled 'the best legs in Hollywood' and he so agreed – stretched out in all their glorious length as she lay on her stomach with her arms tucked under the pillow. Her face, smooth and serene in sleep, was turned away from him towards the windows.

She stirred slightly for a second, stretching her limbs like a cat (Tony just about felt punched in the solar plexus by this sight) and made snuffling sleepy sounds which just about bowled him over.

_Pepper_… for a moment, Tony felt lonely looking at her lying there. He wanted – no needed – her to wake up so he could see her eyes, so he could talk to her. He didn't want her to be in Morpheus' arms right this moment (_GOD_, he was jealous of her even when she slept), he wanted her to be in _his _arms.

Should he wake her up? Probably not. She'd yell at him for disturbing her sleep.

Yeah. Tony felt more resolved. He was just going to get into bed by her side, and fall asleep watching her sleeping next to him. That could be enough for tonight.

Pepper –the sly little minx- must have sensed his inner struggle and decided to aggravate him further (as she would) by making that little sound again, a sort of cross between a contented sigh and a moan.

Tony slowly closed his eyes at the impending doom. No. _Sonofagun NO._

_But – but – waaaant!_

He gritted his teeth, already knowing the outcome of this. Resisting her like this? Pfft. Yeah. Nice try.

Hey, he'd tried. When the vicious she-cat woke up and made her displeasure known to him, Tony would tell her the truth, in other words that it was all her own damned fault for looking so fucking delectable whilst sleeping in his _bed_, wearing his _clothes,_ and showing off her naked ass.

He looked at said ass again and sighed with pleasure. Oh yeah. It was a thing of beauty.

He should really make her pay for it though. Coming home, before he realised the predicament he was in, Tony had been tired and looking forward to nothing more than a bath and then to crash on his bed for ten hours at least to catch up on his sleep. But then he noticed her there, and what JARVIS said about Pepper missing him, and those legs, and that ass, and just _her_, _Pepper yeah, so beautiful –_

With a devious smirk Tony approached the foot of the bed and crawled towards her on his hands and knees, careful of his weight tipping the mattress. Her bare ass was within reach to his hands and other things now. The coy little temptress _knew_ what an appreciation he had for her ass-ets especially when oh-so-tastefully shown off by her work attire, and she liked doing it on purpose.

_It's payback time, darling._

Tony hovered over her lower body, still splayed to his advantage, Pepper slumbering deeply and peacefully. Her ass was now bathed in the blue glow of his reactor, creating tantalising shadows right down the centre in her crevice. It looked smooth and fucking fantastic. Tony licked his lips.

He had to do it.

His fingertips skimmed her buttocks lightly as a butterfly, feeling that swathe of silk that excited his libido into overdrive. He let his pads relay the sensations back to his happy brain, then adjusted them so he skimmed her flesh with his nails. He quickly looked up at her half-obscured face, but she hadn't stirred and was still asleep. The second his hand touched her ass his cock surged with anticipation.

God, he had to taste her.

Tony lowered his head and tenderly pressed his reverent lips onto her warm flesh. It captivated him in that wondrous enchantment he had come to know. She was a witch, and he was thoroughly under her spell.

He nipped and kissed and nibbled, feeling the delicious moments when her gluteus muscles responded to the stimulation and clenched. He ran his tongue slowly on a wide path downward towards the mattress, and purred when he felt her squirm in her sleep. He licked and nibbled with unrestrained enthusiasm now, adding the burn provided by his facial hair to the sensations. Pepper crooned softly and shifted restlessly, but he allowed her to go nowhere.

He followed her curve down to her crevice and smelled her feminine scent. He slowly licked the flimsy fabric of her panties, then moved to her other gluteus, paying the same attention to it as he did the other one. Pepper squirmed again and snuffled unintelligible words. Her leg stretched and he felt her foot knead his calf. He gently held her still under his mouth's ministrations. Every movement and every touch was careful and deliberate, the little devil inside him spurring him on.

A high-pitched moan. That was definitely a moan. _She's coming around_. "Pepper. Open your eyes. Your handsome boyfriend's here."

She moaned again –the pleasure was unmistakeable- and he ran his tongue on her ass again, nibbling on the skin heatedly. His left hand shifted and he brushed her panties-covered sex lightly with the tip of his middle finger. "Unngh…"

Tony looked up at her face in masculine triumph, and it was twisted with unconscious pleasure. _God, she's so beautiful like this._

His voice was deep and melted chocolate, just the tone she liked it when they were in bed. "Pepper. Wake up for me, baby."

He peppered her delicious rear with kisses and nipped teasingly with his teeth, then laved the spot with his tongue. Pepper moaned louder. She stretched away from the sweet torture and mewled at his mouth's attempts to arouse her. The physical touch, the physical spot, his voice and _that_ tone did it.

She woke up mewling, pelvis grinding back towards that mouth and down towards the mattress to alleviate the barrage of wet arousal that assailed her.

She looked behind her and saw Tony's incandescent gaze fastened to her own. Her pupils immediately dilated as she took in the very erotic and totally welcome sight of her boyfriend lying behind her with his large hands holding her ass still and his mouth nuzzling the sensitive flesh. The wholly sensual light in his eyes caused her mouth to part on a gasping breath, unable to look away from him.

"Honey, I'm home. Miss me?" She made a sexy little noise again, followed by his whispered name. Tony raised himself back onto hands and knees and crawled fully to hover over her till his hands rested on the mattress just behind her shoulders. He bent down towards her face and with her head turned towards him, Pepper offered him her mouth. She moaned as his tongue swept inside and claimed her. She held his face close to her and accepted his weight on her back, like an amorous cat submitting to her male mate.

When they broke apart, Tony nuzzled her cheek with his nose and placed a kiss on her temple, then he drew back to look at her better. "That's a helluva welcome home, Miz Potts. I insist this is the welcome I want every time I come home now."

Pepper kissed his chin, her lambent blue eyes tender as they looked into his. "That's a helluva way to be woken up, Mr. Stark. And I'm afraid we're going to have to negotiate those terms of yours."

Tony grinned at her and placed a kiss on her hair, chuckling quietly. Yep. It was great to be home.

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**The end, for now...possibly a cliffhanger? ;) What do you guys think, do you want more of this? Let me know your opinions! I'm also open to prompts and/or suggestions, so write to me, and keep those reviews on my fic Tarnished coming!**

**Vesper x x **


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